Customers

A Customer is any person or business you provide services to. HeyChief keeps all your customer information in one place—contact details, history, preferences, and insights—so you can deliver better service without digging through spreadsheets.

What's on a Customer record

Every customer profile includes:

Contact information

Computed metrics

HeyChief automatically tracks key numbers:

These metrics update automatically—you don't need to calculate anything.

Segments

HeyChief automatically groups customers into segments based on their behavior:

You can also create custom segments based on any criteria: customers who've booked a specific service, customers in a certain zip code, customers with a birthday this month.

Segments are powerful for marketing campaigns—send a "we miss you" message to At Risk customers, or a loyalty reward to VIPs.

Customer timeline

Every customer has a timeline showing their complete history with your business:

• Jobs completed
• Quotes sent and approved
• Invoices and payments
• Messages exchanged
• Reviews left
• Campaigns received

This gives you instant context when a customer calls or messages. You can see their last visit, what services they've used, and whether they have any outstanding balance.

How Customers connect to Jobs

Customers are linked to their Jobs. When you create a Job, you assign it to a Customer. When you view a Customer, you see all their Jobs.

Customer (Sarah Chen)
├── Job #1042 – AC Tune-Up (Completed)
├── Job #1089 – Furnace Repair (In Progress)
└── Job #1103 – Quote for Ductwork (Quote Sent)

This relationship is the foundation of HeyChief. You're not just tracking transactions—you're tracking relationships.

Finding customers

Search and filter customers by:

• Name, email, or phone
• Segment (VIP, At Risk, etc.)
• Tag (you can add custom tags)
• Last visit date range
• Lifetime value range
• Service type they've used

Ask Chief: "Show me customers who haven't been in since October" or "Who are my top 10 customers by lifetime value?"

Creating Customers

Customers can be created:

1. Automatically – When someone books online, fills out a form, or sends you a message
2. Manually – Add them from the Customers workspace
3. During Job creation – Add a new customer on the fly
4. Via Chief – "Add a new customer: John Smith, 555-123-4567"

HeyChief automatically de-duplicates. If someone with the same email or phone already exists, we'll match them instead of creating a duplicate.

Customer preferences

Beyond contact info, you can track:

• Service preferences – "Prefers the gentle cleanser" or "Always wants the same stylist"
• Communication preferences – Text vs. email, morning vs. afternoon
• Billing preferences – Net 30, auto-pay, invoice via email
• Marketing consent – Whether they've opted into promotional messages

These details help you (and Chief) provide personalized service.

Privacy and consent

HeyChief helps you respect customer preferences:

• Marketing consent is tracked separately from transactional communication. Customers can receive appointment reminders even if they've opted out of promotions.
• Data export – Customers can request their data at any time
• Right to delete – You can anonymize or delete customer records (historical job data is preserved for your records, but personal info is removed)

Tips

• Merge duplicates promptly. If you spot duplicate records, merge them. Split records mean split history.

• Use tags generously. "Referred by Mike" or "Met at trade show" tags help you remember context months later.

• Check At Risk weekly. A quick "we miss you" message to At Risk customers is the easiest retention win.

• Let Chief help. "Draft a follow-up email for customers who got a quote but didn't book" takes seconds and often wins back business.